New skills

Notes page for New Skills and Existing Skills

^ Languages and Software Development Tools

Languages and software development tools too investigate . . .

^ Python scripting language

Note, python scripts and configuration are now part of recent Ubuntu and possibly other Debian based Linux distributions. For this reason there is risk of breaking a host system's OS installation on such Linux hosts, if using python's pip installer util to install python packages in their default global mode. Please see 'setting up python virtual environment' a couple paragraphs further on this page.

• https://docs.python.org/3.8/tutorial/

Available with an interactive Python session:

:~$ python3
Python 3.8.5 (default, Jul 28 2020, 12:59:40) 
[GCC 9.3.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> credits
    Thanks to CWI, CNRI, BeOpen.com, Zope Corporation and a cast of thousands
    for supporting Python development.  See www.python.org for more information.
>>> help
Type help() for interactive help, or help(object) for help about object.
>>> help()

Welcome to Python 3.8's help utility!

If this is your first time using Python, you should definitely check out
the tutorial on the Internet at https://docs.python.org/3.8/tutorial/.

Enter the name of any module, keyword, or topic to get help on writing
Python programs and using Python modules.  To quit this help utility and
return to the interpreter, just type "quit".

To get a list of available modules, keywords, symbols, or topics, type
"modules", "keywords", "symbols", or "topics".  Each module also comes
with a one-line summary of what it does; to list the modules whose name
or summary contain a given string such as "spam", type "modules spam".

help> help modules
No Python documentation found for 'help modules'.
Use help() to get the interactive help utility.
Use help(str) for help on the str class.

help> modules

Please wait a moment while I gather a list of all available modules...

Python3 "hello world" example . . .

• https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-write-your-first-python-3-program
• https://www.digitalocean.com/community/users/ltagliaferri

^ python virtual environment set-up, python3-venv

May be a good idea to create a python virtual environment on Ubuntu and similar Linux distro hosts, to avoid possibly breaking some globally installed python modules and or configurations. An article at Linuxize talks about how to do this . . .

• https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-create-python-virtual-environments-on-ubuntu-18-04/

An example use to run canopen-monitor on a Linux host:

  127  source oresat-canopen-monitor/bin/activate
  128  ls
  129  ls canopen_monitor/
  130  vi README.md 
  131  canopen-monitor -i can0
  132  deactivate

^ Python tutorials

• https://www.w3schools.com/python/

Python and ncurses . . .

• https://docs.python.org/3/library/curses.html

Python interface to serial ports . . .

• https://maker.pro/pic/tutorial/introduction-to-python-serial-ports

^ Features and elements of Python

• https://www.w3schools.com/python/python_tuples.asp

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3762881/how-do-i-check-if-stdin-has-some-data

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53541223/read-python-stdin-from-pipe-without-blocking-on-empty-input?noredirect=1&lq=1
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3731681/capturing-user-input-at-arbitrary-times-in-python?noredirect=1&lq=1

^ Cmake

• https://cmake.org/overview/

C++ Programming Lanuage and Topics

• https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/the-c-standard-template-library-stl/ C++ STL classes
• http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2018/p1319r0.html C++11 versus C++14
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_(C%2B%2B) References C++ versus Pointers C

2021-02-09 Tuesday - Direct Rendering Manager DRM and related:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General-purpose_computing_on_graphics_processing_units

Open source examples of Direct Rendering Manager:

• https://github.com/freedesktop/mesa-drm

QtConcurrent . . .

• https://doc.qt.io/Qt-5/qtconcurrent-index.html Code written with QtConcurrent automatically adjusts number of threads instantiated based on number of available processor cores detected at run time . . .
• https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/containers.html Qt container classes, replacements for C++ STL (Standard Templates Library)

^ Containers

^ Docker

STUB SECTION

^ Kubernetes

Containers, Kubernets . . .

• https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/what-is-kubernetes/

^ FPGAs

FPGAs and Their Uses . . .

• https://www.prowesscorp.com/what-is-fpga/#:~:text=FPGAs%20are%20particularly%20useful%20for,FPGAs%20to%20prototype%20new%20chips. FPGAs for chip prototyping
• https://www.adafruit.com/product/451#description DE0-Nano - Altera Cyclone IV FPGA starter board
• https://hackaday.io/page/6698-choosing-fpga-starter-kit-what-to-consider

Somewhat dated with a posting date of 2015 . . .

• https://wonderfulengineering.com/10-best-fpga-boards-for-engineers-and-hobbyists/

ALTERA Cyclone IV EP4CE6 FPGA Development Board Kit Altera EP4CE NIOSII FPGA Board and USB Downloader Infrared Controller

• https://www.reddit.com/r/FPGA/comments/clgotw/open_source_tools_fpga_programming_on_linux/

" Well, there is also a Verilog IDE which runs on Linux: https://github.com/rochus-keller/VerilogCreator/blob/master/README.md

And I'm not sure what you mean by "reasonable sized mainstream FPGAs", but there is a full open source toolchain e.g. for Lattice ECP5 and also the Xilinx 7-series will be supported soon. "

Some FPGA synthesis toolchains:

• https://github.com/rochus-keller/VerilogCreator

• electronicdesign.com/resources/whats-the-difference-between/article/21800239/whats-the-difference-between-vhdl-verilog-and-systemverilog

• http://www.clifford.at/yosys/links.html

• https://elinux.org/images/7/79/Open-Source_Tools_for_FPGA_Development.pdf

• http://pepijndevos.nl/2019/08/15/open-source-formal-verification-in-vhdl.html

2021-03-20 Saturday . . .

• https://symbiflow.github.io/getting-started.html

^ Verilog and VHDL

Academic notes and resources on Verilog:

• http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~traylor/ece474/beamer_lectures/verilog_operators.pdf

Recommended books on Verilog:

• https://www.researchgate.net/post/Can_anyone_refer_a_good_book_for_getting_started_with_verilog_HDL_to_implement_design_on_FPGA_Aritx-7
• https://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Design-Practical-Examples-Verilog/dp/1482593335/

VHDL and Verilog editors and simulators

• https://insights.sigasi.com/faq/#which-free-vhdl-simulator-can-i-use
• https://github.com/Obijuan/open-fpga-verilog-tutorial

Verilog tutorials recommendations:

• https://hackr.io/tutorials/learn-verilog . . . Ten best Verilog tutorials
• https://www.cadence.com/en_US/home/training/all-courses/82110.html
• https://www.doulos.com/knowhow/verilog/

^ Open Circuit Design OCD

• http://opencircuitdesign.com/qflow/welcome.html

^ Xilinx tools

Best download method for Xilinx developer tools and libraries . . .

• https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Blog-Archive/Best-way-to-download-Xilinx-Design-Tools/td-p/816995

^ FPGA articles at Digikey

2021-02-18 Thursday

• https://www.digikey.com/en/articles/fundamentals-of-fpgas-part-5-getting-started-with-intel-altera-fpgas
• https://www.digikey.com/en/blog/fpgas-101-a-beginners-guide

^ FPGA development kits

• https://www.mouser.com/new/terasic-technologies/terasic-fpga-development-kits-altera-cyclone-iv/
• https://www.amazon.com/Altera-Cyclone-FPGA-Development-Board/dp/B0188D4ENO/
• amazon.com/ALINX-ALTERA-Development-EP4CE6-AX301C/dp/B07DBXVMFZ/

^ Altera and FPGASoftware site at Intel

• https://fpgasoftware.intel.com/?edition=lite Quartus Prime Lite Edition

Quartus Prime Lite Edition Software (Device support included)  What's Included?
Quartus-lite-20.1.1.720-linux.tar
Size: 6.4 GB MD5: 0BEBCAECE9D8A03AF9A69A48ADC45634
** Nios II EDS requires you to install an Eclipse IDE manually.

• https://fpgasoftware.intel.com/?edition=lite

Altera Quartus Prime Lite version 20.1.1.720 runs and works on Linux Mint / Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Some interesting articles on configurations, projects and support for the DE0-Nano board involving Altera Cyclone IV include:

• https://community.intel.com/t5/Programmable-Devices/Multiple-Configuration-File-for-Cyclone-IV-E/m-p/50419#M13121%3Fwapkw=ep4ce22f17c6

^ CAN Protocol and CANOpen

Starting point for information on CANOpen and Object Dictionaries used by CANOpen enabled devices (a.k.a. nodes):

• https://canopen.readthedocs.io/en/latest/od.html
• https://www.kvaser.com/can-protocol-tutorial/##oscilloscopePictures

Object Dictionary editor written in C#:

• https://github.com/robincornelius/libedssharp

^ USB Protocol

• https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/connectivity/usb-universal-serial-bus/protocol-data-transfer.php

^ Portland Community College courses

• https://www.pcc.edu/ccog/?fa=ccog&subject=EET&course=123

^ Windows Powershell

• https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/basic-windows-powershell-commands-you-should-already-know/
• https://www.brycemcdonald.net/powershell/automation/exchange/2019/04/10/PowerShell-vs-Bash.html

^ Distributed Simulation

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/distributed-simulation

^ Existing skills

• https://www.altexsoft.com/whitepapers/agile-project-management-best-practices-and-methodologies/

Excerpt of Agile values in a nutshell:

"Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan.”